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With a Palace crowd chanting “Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!” the point guard picked up at last year’s trade dealing scored 14 points in the fourth quarter when the Wizards actually took a brief one-point lead after trailing by 16 points in the third quarter.

And by taking care of business, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy gave the team the weekend off with the next game coming Tuesday when the Miami Heat visit the Palace in the home finale. The Pistons can stop scoreboard watching, knowing that they've ended the Eastern Conference's longest streak of missing the playoffs.

And Van Gundy, picked to rebuild the franchise in May 2014, delivered owner Tom Gores his first playoff appearance in his second season running the proud franchise that's won three titles.

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Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy is satisfied at the franchise's first playoff appearance since 2009. Video by Vince Ellis/DFP

And just like most of the season, Jackson was clutch.

"We're definitely happy to go get it ourselves and I think what makes it sweeter is that it was against a team that beat us the last three games we played them," Jackson said. "We did it against a team that was chasing us. I think they were the only team that had a legitimate chance to chase us and knock them out and clinch our spot against a team that had really beating us up.

"I don't think we could have written the story any better."

The Wizards, now eliminated from playoff contention, were 3-0 this season against the Pistons and laid a 43-point thumping on the Pistons just less than a month ago in Washington.

The Pistons jumped on the Wizards early, taking a 19-point lead in the first half.

The Wizards, missing point guard John Wall, cut the deficit to seven by halftime. The Pistons surged again in the third quarter, taking a 16-point lead.

But the Wizards surged again, taking an 87-86 lead with 10:16 remaining after Bradley Beal (25 points) converted a free throw after a Reggie Bullock technical foul.

And a Markieff Morris dunk gave the Wizards their last lead at 89-88.

With the score tied 92, Jackson went to work, scoring 12 points in the final 8:34. His step-back triple with 2:12 left gave the Pistons a 106-96 lead and the Palace crowd of 18,207 started the chants. Jackson finished 14-for-20 from the field and 4-for-5 from three-point line.

"Reggie was fabulous," Van Gundy said. "He's had a tough month, been in a slump, and he busted out of it in a huge way tonight and really took control of that game."

Jackson surged while Pistons center Andre Drummond sat for another fourth quarter when a team went to intentionally fouling the poor free-throw shooter.

He sat away from his teammates for most of the evening. It appeared something was bothering him. He finished with eight points and six rebounds.

But that’s a problem for another day, as the Pistons moved into seventh after the eighth-place Pacers (42-37) lost at Toronto. The Pistons have two games remaining; the Pacers have three. The Pacers own the tiebreaker.

Pistons forward Tobias Harris is headed to playoffs for first time in his five-year career. Video by Vince Ellis/DFP

The Pistons withstood a 24-point third quarter from Wizards (38-41) forward Markieff Morris, who finished with 29 points.

The Pistons – led by Jackson – didn’t show any signs of nerves at the beginning. They made their first six three-pointers and roared to 39-25 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Jackson’s three-pointer at the 5:56 mark of the second quarter gave the Pistons a 19-point lead at 55-36.

But the Pistons went cold, and the Wizards went on a 19-7 run to end the first half.

The Pistons took a 62-55 lead into halftime behind 19 points and five assists from Jackson.

The Pistons pushed the lead to 16 in the third quarter, but Morris capped off the third with a half-court shot at buzzer to cut the deficit to 86-84.

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Pistons center Andre Drummond responds to another late-game benching during Friday's win over the Wizards. Video by Vince Ellis/DFP

After the game, Van Gundy expressed satisfaction that four of his five starters -- Drummond, Caldwell-Pope, Harris and Marcus Morris -- will participate in the playoffs for the first time in their careers. Jackson is used to playoff runs with Oklahoma City.

"It's huge for our organization," Van Gundy said. "We got four starters in there who've never been -- huge for them. Marcus and Tobias in their fifth year. Andre in his fourth year. It's a great milestone for them to get in. We hope this is the start of bigger things to come, but you got to start somewhere, and this is it."

The Pistons were 26 of 29 from the free-throw line with Jackson going 7-for-7 and Aron Baynes going 10-for-10. Baynes had 12 points.